On June 9th I visited with David Whiteside’s grade 5 students at Whitehorse Elementary School.  Students have had 4 bakes sales over the last year and all the money has been donated towards a feeding program at a Primary School in Kakamega that I am organizing.  So many Kenyan students spend the whole day at school and are trying to learn on an empty stomach.   

My friend Grace is the headmistress at Maraba School and together we plan to set up a feeding program in November this year.  Last year when I was in Kenya the teachers were on strike and I was unable to set anything up.  But all the money that was raised will be used this year and will provide food for so  many young students over the year I am in Kenya.  I want to thank David for his continued support and the enthusiasm of all the students; thanks Natalie, Lauren, Graydon, Logan, Harrison, Caleb, Matthew, Aimee, Abby, Mackenzie, Jessica, Paige, Felicia, Hannah, Lyndsey, Whitney, Hope, Madisen, Simon and Alix. 

This money could not have come at a better time.  Yesterday the headlines in the paper in Kenya read; KENYA: ”Now the drought comes almost every year”LAIKIPIA-ISIOLO , 10 June 2009 (IRIN) - LAIKIPIA-ISIOLO - Millions of Kenyans are facing hunger due to a prolonged drought and successive failed rains. In the northern region, pastoralists’ livelihoods are especially threatened not just by drought and high food prices but also by deadly inter-communal conflict, livestock diseases and a lack of basic services.

Well I arrive back late on Friday night and early the next morning Roselyne is at my door so excited as we are heading shopping to get her set for starting school on Monday.  I first met Roselyne in 2003 when she came to see me to see if I would sponsor her through secondary school.  She was just a kid then and now she has grown into a beautiful young lady with big plans for her future.  Her three sisters are all at home and it looks like Roselyne has big responsibilities.   Her oldest sister Carolyn had a stoke last year and now is at home as her husband does not want to be bothered with her anymore.  She can’t walk and is just now learning to talk and it’s been a difficult process.  The other sisters Eunice and Helen are there to assist and both are struggling to find work.  We wander to town and start the process of purchasing what is needed for boarding school; mattress, bedding, suitcase and then all those other things that are necessary.  We get lots of stationary and hopefully they will have textbooks at the college.  Roselyne is taking Information Technology and the diploma course is three years.  It takes both Saturday and Sunday to finish and then we grab a chicken and head to my home with other friends to have dinner.  Hussein kills it, Emmy and Roselyne clean it and I cook it.  I have a big crowd and we enjoy a great evening.  Up early on Monday and we pile everything into a friend’s car and head about 10 kilometres to Sigalagala College to register.  I stop at the bank first and pay for the full year’s school fees.  It cost me about $700 and that includes her boarding and meals until end of December.  We arrive at the school to a mad house of students and staff.  Mostly no one knowing what to do or where to go.  They say if I go with her to the registrar’s office they will let us go first.  I know why and figure that is unfair so we decide to just wait with the rest.  Well Hussein knows one of the staff so we take advantage of getting through faster by her helping us.  Thank god as it still took 7 hours.  Talk about a process, but patience is a virtue.  We get Roselyne totally settled with her registration and her room and leave her.  It’s so exciting.  Back home on Monday night I get a call from her and she missed dinner.  No one came to tell her.  She is in college now, its not secondary school where they do everything for the students.  Here she is on her own; she makes her own way forward and must make her own decisions.  She’ll do fine.  We talk every night but eventually she will make friends and be less scared.   Emmy, Hussein’s partner is also excited as I will assist her into college in Kakamega town.  She is taking Community Development and will just be a day scholar.  As Hussein and Emmy will be living at my house when I return to Whitehorse she will have access to my computer that I will leave and also have electricity to study by.  Emmy is struggling as her family is having difficulties to raise the funds to put her through school.  We get her shopping done and she pays her school fees and waits patiently for classes to start in a few days.